Idyllwild area, Riverside County, CA PLUS Colorado River area, La Paz County, AZ

Pine Tree in Black Forest Campground - December 23, 2018
San Bernardino National Forest, Pine Cove, CA

Active birding leads to many adventures in a variety of places. This trip with birding companion, Glenda Jones, took us from the Phoenix area to the mountain community of Idyllwild, California in the San Jacinto Mountains on Thursday, December 20, 2018. On the Solstice we had a very short day of birding; a full moon brought light to the long night.

Stopping first at Lake Hemet close to our destination after a six-hour drive, we began birding at 4:21 p.m. Four other birders from Oregon were wrapping up their full day of looking for the same Life Bird I was after -- Mountain Quail -- without luck. We birded there from the parking lot together briefly - but long enough for our first California sighting to be a WHITE-TAILED KITE far in the distance.

Photo of White-tailed Kite by Glenda Jones

Based on these pine cones that lit up in direct setting sunlight, I believe this is a Coulter Pine

I was certainly aware of the devastating fires across much of California this summer/fall, but did not realize how close one fire had come to Idyllwild - stopping on the opposite side of the road leading into town. The whole mountain community had been saved.
At our Creekside Inn, we learned that everyone had needed to evacuate and that lives were just now getting back to normal. Later, we birded a road that ended at a burned area with soot and ash ankle deep. 

End of road showing fire-burnt area in San Bernardino Forest -- Photo by Glenda Jones

I walked only on hardened surfaced ash there and just brushing against a burned bush left my new tan quill pants covered with black charcoal streaks - which brushed off easily over time. It was along this road that we spotted our first PURPLE FINCH and RED-SHOULDERED HAWK.

RED-SHOULDERED HAWK

Overall, we spotted some 70 species of birds in our three days of birding, none of which was my target bird: Mountain Quail. We couldn't even find a California Qual! To make a long story short, the coordinates from an eBird list reporting 5 Mountain Quail and 19 California Quail led us to a residence. Well, that can't be! Adding to my frustration was the problem of my "smart phone" updating itself during the night so that my GPS on it wasn't available; it now needed to be updated itself to work with the updated system. Grrrrrrrr.

We returned the next day with Glenda's research showing the google photo of the parcel we needed. Finding two farmers out early (7:30), they laughed and said, "Oh, that's so and so's ranch; he's not going to let you in there." But he proceeded to provide potential alternative approaches to the back of that ranch and the area depicted on her photo.

We bush-whacked through forest with deep pine needles that proved slick when going down  a bank into a ravine or back up to flatter land. Every turn we took led to fence line. We got through the first one but came upon a well-signed fence that would have made us trespassers, so retraced that unsuccessful attempt at locating the rich "quail" spot.

An adjacent property that had been gated at our start was now open with a caretaker out and about. While Barry tended the goats he welcomed us into the Christian Retreat center that was free of guests. He said it was full of Red-headed Woodpeckers. Glenda and I looked at one another, then took advantage of full access to this property that supposedly also abutted the back end of the big ranch.

Male ACORN WOODPECKERs do have red crowns but not the full red head of Red-headed Woodpeckers. It's a beautiful black and white bird with a white eye and clownish face. But they were busy and kept their distance.

I took this photo in the Pinal Mountains, Superior, AZ 

Tree trunk where ACORN WOODPECKERS were stuffing acorns

Although we explored the edges of this property, we found no clear passage (fenced) to the google-identified parcel we were seeking. So, my major quest was dashed! 
Actually, birds were out and about now that the sun was well up. We identified fifteen species, including OAK TITMOUSE, CALIFORNIA SCRUB JAY and NUTTALL'S WOODPECKER. 

OAK TITMOUSE - Photo by Glenda Jones

Having done just a quick stop at Lake Hemet on our way north, we returned to cover that area more thoroughly. Winds had picked up and the only waterfowl we found on the Lake was huddled close to shore. But passerines were present, too.

CALIFORNIA SCRUB JAY

WESTERN MEADOWLARK  - Photo by Glenda Jones

TRI-COLORED BLACKBIRD - Photo by Glenda Jones

Idyllwild Nature Center proved to be "birdy" each time we stopped to walk around.

WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER

PYGMY NUTHATCH

MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE  (above and below)

MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE

WESTERN BLUEBIRD - Photo by Glenda Jones

GLENDA JONES - Idyllwild Nature Center

The artsy community of Idyllwild appealed to us. The only meal we sat down to enjoy was dinner. Night #1 at Ferro's Italian Restaurant we devoured a delicious pizza; second night at Cafe Roma with its gallery art decorating the walls I chose a stuffed sweet potato that filled me up.

Sasquatch must visit this welcoming town

There were many more California birds but it was time to check out some of my favorite spots in Arizona before heading home. After an overnight in Blythe, CA, we arrived at Cibola National Wildlife Refuge by 7:30 a.m. to drive the Goose Loop and walk the Cornfield Nature Trail including the Loafing Pond.

OSPREY in dawn light

CANADA GOOSE

NORTHERN PINTAIL (pair)

SANDHILL CRANE

NORTHERN SHOVELER (female)

YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRDs (females)

Three black-backed male YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD in this photo above 

SNOW GEESE

SNOW GEESE at Loafing Pond -- Photo by Glenda Jones

SANDHLL CRANEs

Spending way too much time at Cibola with its thousands of Sandhills and Snow Geese, we managed to make a run north to Parker Dam and Bill Williams National Wildlife Refuge (Hdq) to check for a few more birds before driving back to East Phoenix, arriving around 7:30 p.m. 

Emotions during this birding trip ranged from very disappointed to thrilled. And that seems to be the name of the game. 

Thanks to eBird's statistical data base that counts my total birds observed during each year, I am having my best-ever birding year! 

By year's end, I'll let you know my standing in both Arizona and the ABA (American Birding Association that covers the USA and Canada).

Setting Solstice Moon

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Thrasher Corner, Maricopa County, AZ

Saturday, December 8, 2018
Dealing with an unusual amount of traffic at 6 a.m., from East to West Valley of Phoenix, I still managed to arrive at sunrise.

Chilly air felt comfortably brisk beneath my layers. White-crowned Sparrows were singing from the southeast side of Baseline Road; I parked and walked out to the quadrant on the northeast side of Baseline where it dead-ends at Salome Highway. 

Without having stopped at a rest area prior to my arrival at this well-known "Thrasher Corner" of desert saltbush, creosote, mesquite and bushes, I squatted behind some tall bushes out in the otherwise open desert. Ah, relief. In my head I announced to the critters that I had marked my spot and I would be spending a couple hours with them hoping to find two birds in particular that might be difficult in December: LeConte's Thrasher and Sagebrush Sparrow. In a way, I was asking for their assistance.

Rare in Arizona, pockets of fog crisscrossed the wide open desert.

Walking was easy on the hard flat sandy soil in and around the shrubs. HOUSE FINCH were the first species to show themselves - catching the warming rays of the low sun.

Scanning the taller bushes, I stopped short when I saw this:

How do I not know you, bird with white speckled back?
I had never seen these "fluffed feather" white marks before.

Slowly, I approached the raptor. At first, with its head scrunched down, I thought it was a Sharpie (Sharp-shinned Hawk) but when I maneuvered to a better angle, I discovered it was a juvenile COOPER'S HAWK.

Juvenile (striped not banded breast marks) COOPER'S HAWK fluffed against the morning chill

It's rounded, not straight, end of tail also differentiates Cooper's from Sharp-Shinned Hawk

With this new learning experience of a well-known raptor, I felt good about the morning stretched ahead of me.

Still fairly quiet, I enjoyed stretching my legs across the desert to the North and farther East in that same quadrant before returning closer to where I had begun. Having already been told my target bird was not located in this quadrant, I started there anyway remembering one of my first good birding visits there with Tommy D and Caleb. How would I do on my own these several years later? 

As I considered moving to another corner of the desert, I heard a thrasher song not far from where the Cooper's Hawk had formerly been perched. Yes, I recognized your song, BENDIRE'S THRASHER. Good to see you, too, in desert away from Lost Dutchman State Park where I most often see that species, intermittently.

BENDIRE'S THRASHER
Note light eye, relatively straight, not deeply curved, bill

Same BENDIRE'S THRASHER

With the sun higher in the sky I began to hear familiar desert songbirds: VERDIN, BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER, more WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWs. But now seemed a good time to move to another of these four corners of desert. 

Not yet, called a CRISSAL THRASHER: I'm over here. Not seeing it, I followed its voice. 

CRISSAL THRASHER
Its plain gray/brown back is darker than that of LeConte's as is its under-tail coverts.

Same CRISSAL THRASHER--only a hint of its dark feathers beneath its tail are showing, but its enough

Thanking the CRTH for calling me back away from my walk toward the car, I looked around and listened again. With 1.5 hours already lapsed (some because I was so early), I now walked across Baseline to the southeast quadrant full of WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW, a MOURNING DOVE and HOUSE FINCH.

Crossing Salome Highway from there, I entered another great swathe of wide open desert. Breathing deeply as I walked, seeing no birds active on the ground or singing from tops of  trees, I just felt good and comfortable in the open space. 

From the north, a man on a bicycle was pedaling toward me on a narrow well-used trail (new to me). I had noted a house and mobile home to the south so assumed he knew a town for shopping or something. Maybe, as it turns out, he was just taking his dog (unleashed) for a run through the desert. He called out the dog was loose; I said OK. Immediately, the good-sized black dog came up, sniffed me and returned immediately when called by its owner.

I continued westward to get farther from civilization. Strangely, my iPhone worked out here in this isolated somewhat desolate spot; I was listing species on eBird as I saw them. In the "boonies" there is always the issue of "what if". Not a very fearful person, I am, however, aware of safety and generally try to bird with someone else in such places. But spontaneity is not conducive to this happening and I actually, many times, prefer birding by myself.

Is that a CURVE-BILLED THRASHER I hear?? Rarely hearing it vocalize more than its Wheet! Wheet! call, I heard this in the middle of this bird's song.It's bill too long, curved and thin to be a CURVE-BILLED, I really couldn't identify it within a mesquite tree hidden by branches and needles.  [Later learned that the LeConte's has a "prreeet-preeet" call in its song.

Much later and farther north, I heard a similar song without the wheet-wheet!. It was my target bird, LeCONTE'S THRASHER.

LECONTE'S THRASHER
Note the dark eye and much lighter under-tail feathers than Crissal Thrasher

Look closely for thin throat stripe on this LeCONTE'S THRASHER

Having spent a good amount of time with this bird, I realized I hadn't yet spotted any SAGEBRUSH SPARROWs. Maybe its chip woke me up to that fact! As soon as I realized it, I heard one.

My nemesis is trying to photograph this sparrow that loves to run on the desert from shrub to shrub, tail held high. I'm slow with the camera. But, look! Did it just wake up? It's foraging beside the bush.

SAGEBRUSH SPARROW (above & below)

White lores behind bill, white belly, narrow streaks on back, pale gray/brown; complete white eye ring

Thrilled to have finally photographed this quick bird, I headed slowly eastward toward Salome Highway. More SAGEBRUSH SPARROWs were awake and running now, from the base of one bush to another. I laughed and thanked the one I managed for a photo ID.

Passing by the memorable spot of the mini-cobra-like Diamondback Rattler hissing at me last year, I was glad it was too cold to worry about snakes today.

Another cherished day in the wild.

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View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S50515359

Two Lower Salt River Recreation sites plus Elgin vineyards area and Las Cienegas NCA in Santa Cruz Co., AZ [11/28 to 12/2/18]

Wednesday, November 28, 2018
A really spiffy-looking woodpecker had been recently reported on the local rare bird alert at Pebble Beach Recreation Area along the Salt River -- essentially my "back yard" at 30 minutes drive time.

An adult RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER had been discovered at Pebble Beach several years ago during a Christmas Bird Count. More of a west-coast bird than inland, local birders were thrilled to get to see it in trees close to Bush Highway. I was able to photograph it in its territory there so I knew what I was looking for today.

RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER, Pebble Beach Recreation Area, Salt River; 1/11/13

Today, however, it was not right out in the front area, it was way back along the very shallow Salt River. It was a beautiful crisp Fall day, so I had set out with the hope of finding it. 

Knowing the area well, I avoided the "beach" (small river rock among pebbles) to walk directly from the parking area through the desert to river's edge. Hmmm. 

From my point on bare river-rock bottom, I spotted these RING-NECKED DUCK and GREAT BLUE HERON at a distance.

This river rock - minus the water lined the sides of the Salt River. I walked a long distance on the bare rocks covered with dry or damp grass searching for a safe crossing place, as I was on a tributary or off-shoot of the main channel.

RING-NECKED DUCKs - only species I found on the river

It took some focus and balancing to find my way to a shallow spot and it never once crossed my mind to photograph the dry river bed with all its rounded rocks. Finally I managed a safe crossing (I've stopped trying to balance on rocks over water, thus the shallows, so I could just walk through to the land between the fork and the main river channel. Walking on the sand spit (with rocks) was easier on the feet, harder on the body with its cockleburs, goat-head thorns, downed limbs and spiky branches everywhere.

But I could hear birds. Soon after my crossing, another birder (from Phoenix) crossed with ease at a deeper spot from rock to rock and up the steep bank. We birded together a short while. When we heard the MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE calling, Parker couldn't believe his ears and needed to see the bird. Strange as it seems, that species has shown up in other years at Granite Reef and Coon Bluff, way below its normal mountain heights. I didn't follow Parker but stayed my course; he went over to the main channel to get a look at that high-elevation bird down here in the desert.

From my middle ground "sand spit" I could walk to either the main channel on my right or the off-shoot on my left when an opening occurred in the marshy, shrubby edges of the river.

Walking was tough, but birds kept appearing: WESTERN BLUEBIRD, PHAINOPEPLA,RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER, LADDER-BACKED WOODPECKER and NORTHERN FLICKER (Red-shafted) and many more. I continued eastward for a long while until I gave thought to the possible need to turn back. That idea did not appeal to me. I gauged my eastward distance by the mountains around me and figured I would walk across that "forK' or "inlet" again to return to the main part of the recreation area. Hallelujah! 

The inlet water trickled into non-existence; I was able to follow a horse trail directly back to the sandy south side of Pebble Beach without crossing river rock or water!

Among the 36 bird species I spotted, none were the handsome RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER.

Best photos of the day: 

Male Phanopepla

OSPREY

And, three horses.

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S50278572

After an appointment the next day (Thursday 11/29/18), I headed off to Saguaro Lake with just my binoculars and camera in the car hoping to find the RED-NECKED GREBE reported there.

In under an hour I easily saw fifteen species (not counting all the land birds), but not my target species. After spotting a WESTERN GREBE at quite a distance; 2 HORNED GREBE slightly closer to the pier where I was birding and a number of PIED-BILLED GREBE closer to shore, I suspected the grebe that was diving repeatedly with only short pauses above water might be my bird. But, no: photos showed it to be an EARED GREBE - much shorter, slimmer necked and with a much shorter yellow bill than the RED-NECKED. So, I struck out and haven't had time to revisit the spot with my scope.

BUFFLEHEAD

EARED GREBE

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S50302434

Saturday, December 1, 2018
There will be no photos from today's exceptional birding experience since I didn't have a license to use my camera on the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC). 

While this was the 20th year of the GRIC Winter Bird Count, this was my very first time attending it. The Community's Department of Environmental Quality sponsors this Count and partners with the Huhugam Heritage Center, Audubon Society, Tribal Rangers and cultural leaders within GRIC.

Meeting at specified locations at 7:00 a.m., those of us from Audubon groups were matched up with Community members with children wearing binoculars who showed a keen interest in finding out how to identify the birds. Among the very young, they were just having fun wearing binoculars while trying to find anything through them. Had I been able to take pictures, it would have been of these young folks (12 yrs and under in my group) looking at perched sparrows and meadowlarks in the massive cotton fields on their land. Birds in cotton fields was a new experience for me. I'm still not certain of how their Community cotton fields differ from those in agricultural lands I drive past on a regular basis that have absolutely no birds perched or hovering!

It's my understanding that all seven (7) districts within the 600 square-miles belonging to the Gila River Indian Community were covered by birding teams like the one I was on. We had Mr. Robert Johnson heading up our group. Having arrived at the meeting place a bit early, I had watched this older man approaching on foot from a distance across the pre-dawn desert....wondering at first if it was an apparition. But, no. It was Mr. Johnson. He played a big role in the publication of their 2018-20th Anniversary Edition of a beautiful 36-page booklet of WINTER BIRDS of the Gila River Indian Community. Mr. Johnson, a linguist, provided the native words for each bird, i.e. GREATER ROADRUNNER was THADAI in their language. So the younger generation was gaining heritage along with the identification of the bird. And each of us who participated were given a copy of the 2018 Anniversary Edition.

A few of the local women in our group were self-effacing leaders in the Community serving in or heading up the environmental and water resources departments. One had worked on the recently resolved decades-old problem of water for GRIC. At the celebratory lunch they provided for everyone present, one of these women introduced me to the Lt. Governor, Robert Stone of GRIC who sat next to me eating his fry bread as I ate mine - during a heritage dance performance in the dance arbor at the bottom of the concrete amphitheater. Later Lt. Governor Stone welcomed his own Community members as well as guests (us) and Liberty Wildlife (bird rescue/rehabilitation) from Phoenix. Liberty Wildlife members, out on the patio, holding a GOLDEN EAGLE, RED-TAILED HAWK and AMERICAN KESTREL on gloved hands were a big hit with native children, teenagers and all adults.

For me, it was a day to treasure. And since the Community had so many cotton fields filled with birds - that I couldn't photograph - I thought I'd add pictures of the fields along Route 87 in the Coolidge area (a short cut over to I-10 from Apache Junction) that happen to have no birds, so no photographs.

Cotton field ready for harvest

Close-up view of the cotton ripe for harvest

Machine harvested and baled, this shows how the tarp is fastened into the bale

Bale of cotton ready in the field for truck pick up

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The next day, Sunday, December 2, 2018, Glenda Jones and I set out for Sonoita and the ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK(s) being reported along Highway 82 in the Elgin vineyard and Las Cienegas NCA grasslands areas, including Davis Pasture. Arriving around 8 a.m., we initially saw no other birders cruising slowly along the highway. We pulled off from time to time to take photos of some fantastic raptors like WHITE-TAILED KITE, RED-TAILED HAWK and a male, female and juvenile NORTHERN HARRIER.  

WHITE-TAILED KITE (above and below)

RED-TAILED HAWK (above and below) 

Communicating with us???

NORTHERN HARRIER (Gray Ghost)  [photo by Glenda Jones]

Then, finally, we spotted our bird - high on top of a utility pole.

The ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK allowed a long viewing period before flushing when a truck pulled into the property next to the pole.

ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK (female) -- above & below

Note feathers down to its feet

Very distant pic from its flight with its dark wrist patches, pointy wings and long tail.

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S50380833

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S50381169

Waiting to get out into the field again!

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